Grade 7 English Language Arts
12 units matched to the Nova Scotia Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Learning focus
- Cultural expressions. Learners will reflect on how the cultures of communities, inclusive of the Mi’kmaq, Acadians, African Nova Scotians, and the Gaels, are expressed through a range of communication forms.
- Responses. Learners will plan oral, written, and visual personal and critical responses, in relation to audience and purpose.
- Creating. Learners will create oral, written, and visual communication forms for a range of audiences and purposes.
- Speaking and writing strategies. Learners will implement speaking and writing strategies for effective communication in relation to audience and purpose.
- Comprehending. Learners will comprehend a range of communication forms using listening strategies, reading strategies, and viewing strategies.
- Accuracy and bias. Learners will analyse the accuracy, reliability, validity, and bias in a range of written, audio, visual, and digital communication forms.
Units
Unit 1
Cultures & Communication Forms
Practises how oral stories, songs, poems, plays, film and social media express culture, what first-voice texts are, and how creators' choices shape meaning, with Mi’kmaw, Acadian, African Nova Scotian and Gaelic examples. Ties to the Nova Scotia Grade 7 English language arts outcome on cultural expressions.
Learning outcome: Cultural expressions · Explore how communication forms express culture, identity and different voices
Unit 2
Close Reading
Reading original stories, arguments and informational passages, then identifying theme and main idea, making inferences, spotting claims and counterarguments, and explaining why an author made certain choices.
Learning outcome: Comprehending · reading closely for meaning
Unit 3
Literary Devices
Recognizing the tools writers use: figurative language, foreshadowing, flashback, symbolism and the three kinds of irony (verbal, situational and dramatic), plus the parts of a plot.
Learning outcome: Responses · literary devices in stories and poems
Unit 4
Tone & Mood
Telling the writer's attitude (tone) apart from the reader's feeling (mood), and seeing how word choice and connotation shape both.
Learning outcome: Responses · tone and mood
Unit 5
Whose Story?
Telling first, second and third person apart, finding the clues, and imagining how a different narrator would change the story.
Learning outcome: Responses · point of view and perspective
Unit 6
Persuasive Power
Identifying appeals to credibility, emotion and logic; spotting weak reasoning like bandwagon, false cause and slippery slope; and judging which evidence and rebuttals are strongest.
Learning outcome: Speaking and writing strategies · persuasive techniques
Unit 7
Source Check
Researching responsibly: judging whether a source is trustworthy and current, noticing bias, separating fact from opinion, and giving credit through quotation, paraphrase and citation.
Learning outcome: Accuracy and bias · checking sources for accuracy and bias
Unit 8
Clauses & Sentences
Finding independent and dependent clauses, naming the four sentence types, and fixing fragments, run-ons and comma splices, the building blocks of varied, clear sentences.
Learning outcome: Creating · clauses and sentence structure in writing
Unit 9
Modifiers & Parallelism
Revising sentences so describing phrases sit next to what they describe (no misplaced or dangling modifiers) and list items match in form (parallel structure).
Learning outcome: Creating · modifiers and parallel structure
Unit 10
Semicolons, Colons & Dashes
Using semicolons to join related sentences and separate complex lists, colons to introduce lists and explanations, and dashes to add emphasis or interruptions.
Learning outcome: Creating · semicolons, colons and dashes
Unit 11
Word Mix-Ups
Choosing correctly between commonly confused words: its/it's, their/there/they're, then/than, lose/loose, who's/whose, affect/effect, accept/except and more.
Learning outcome: Creating · commonly confused words
Unit 12
Poetry Lab
Reading short original poems to find rhyme schemes, count stanzas, identify the speaker, recognize forms like haiku, limerick and free verse, and interpret figurative language and theme.
Learning outcome: Creating · writing and reading poems
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